Likewise, those who concurred with Jahm on his fundamental doctrine concerning predestination make no distinction between the karāmāt (extraordinary graces) granted to the saints and the preternatural feats of sorcerers; in their view the only difference is that the saint obeys God whereas the sorcerer does not. This is the chief reliance of these deniers of wisdom and causality in the acts of God, exalted is He.

The overwhelming majority of people, however, disagree with them and say, “This claim is unsound; indeed, merely picturing it is enough to recognize its falsehood. If the two matters were alike in every respect, how could one know that this one exists—or necessarily exists—while that one does not exist—or is impossible?

“If someone says, ‘Our basis is custom (ʿāda),’ he is told: your opponents say this is invalid on two counts.

“First, you yourself allow for the disruption of custom, yet in your view that disruption is tied to no distinctive cause and to no particular wisdom for which it occurs. According to you there is no difference whether custom is broken for prophets, saints, sorcerers, or anyone else. Hence you have stated that there is no distinction between prophetic miracles, saintly karāmāt, and sorcerers’ wonders except the mere conjunction of a prophetic claim and a challenge to produce a counter-sign in the absence of any counter-sign—though such a challenge may come from a polytheist or even from a sorcerer. Thus you have established no difference that pertains to the very genus of extraordinary acts performed, nor to the intent of the Actor and Creator, nor to His power or His wisdom.

“Second, custom necessarily rests on causes and impediments by which its continual operation is known at one time and its suspension at another. With this, the reply becomes clear to their assertion that turning a mountain into gold, a sea into mercury, or human beings into apes, and the like, is something possible and well-known.”